A new report says allowing optometrists to prescribe oral medicines for ocular conditions could save the Australian health budget $50 million a year.
The analysis is to be shared with federal and state health ministers as part of Optometry Australia’s (OA) push for change on the profession’s scope-of-practice.
The organisation is also calling on the Optometry Board of Australia (OBA) to take action to review and change rules around the use of schedule medicines.
With optometrists able to prescribe oral drugs in other countries with similar health systems, OA has long advocated for this change. However, the move is not supported by the entire industry, with both RANZCO and the Australian Society of Ophthalmologists previously telling Insight they oppose this scope change, stating optometrists don’t have the appropriate medical training and experience, which could compromise patient safety.
RANZCO did not wish to comment on this latest announcement.
The report, The Value of Expanding Optometrists’ Prescribing Rights in Australia, prepared by HTANALYSTS and commissioned by OA, is an economic analysis of common cases of ocular conditions such as severe dry eye, herpes zoster ophthalmicus, and preseptal cellulitis.
It outlines health budget savings of around $50 million per year, patient savings of approximating $27m million per year, and significant improvements to productivity and access to care through optometrist oral prescribing.
The report also said that allowing optometrists to prescribe oral medicines would mean time savings for ophthalmologists by reducing “unnecessary onward referrals”.
It compares the patient journey, system and patient costs, professional time saved, and productivity implications of treating various ocular conditions currently and into the future, enabled by optometrist oral prescribing.
Key highlights of the analysis include:
- Treatment of severe dry eye by optometrists with oral medicines has the potential to save over 700,000 GP visits per year, equating to over $30 million of federal funding, and $8 million of patient incurred expenses, in addition to almost 200,000 ophthalmology appointments being saved for more critical conditions.
- Oral prescribing by optometrists to treat herpes zoster ophthalmicus has the potential to alleviate $663,000 of avoided productivity costs.
- Treatment of acute angle closure glaucoma by optometrists, when a patient does not have appropriate access to emergency ophthalmologist care, would not only improve visual outcomes, but would also save around $8500 per patient in treatment costs.
An OA media release said the Federal Government’s Scope of Practice Review – Unleashing the Potential of our Health Workforce – had acknowledged that there is “strong evidence of improved consumer access to care, consumer experience of care and health outcomes when health professionals are enabled to work to full scope-of-practice”.
OA has also released a Position Statement on Medicines, outlining its position on the prescribing of medicines by optometrists.
It has called on that the OBA to “take action to review and contemporise the Guidelines for the Use of Scheduled Medicines, to enable therapeutically endorsed optometrists to prescribe oral medications for the purpose of practising optometry”.
“Australia’s approximately 7,000 optometrists currently face significantly more limitations to their scope-of-practice than their counterparts with similar training in other countries,” OA said.
“This includes the United Kingdom (prescribing since 2008), New Zealand (since 2014) and the United States (in all 50 states, the first of which commenced oral prescribing in 1977).”
In response to the new report, OA CEO Ms Skye Cappuccio said: “Oral and topical prescribing are within the current level of training and knowledge of therapeutically qualified Australian optometrists, so it is imperative that relevant regulations should allow therapeutically endorsed optometrists to prescribe medications for the purpose of practising optometry.
“This is in the best interests of their patients and will bring significant improvements to our overburdened healthcare system.”
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